INC NEWS - article on lead poisoning (today's USA TODAY)

[John Schelp]

Don't discount lead poisoning 
USA Today, 26 March 2007

Lead exposure is not atop the worry lists of many
parents these days. It doesn't get the press that bad
diets or toxic TV shows do. And it isn't as widespread
a problem as it was a generation ago. But lead
poisoning remains an important cause of learning and
behavioral problems for some of our country's most
vulnerable children.

And a growing body of research suggests the harm may
be greater and may accumulate for more years than
previously realized.

"There are some kids in our country who do still have
very high lead exposures," says Aimin Chen... who is
now at the Creighton University School of Medicine in
Omaha.

Many of those at risk are poor, urban kids who live in
crumbling, old buildings full of lead-based paint
(banned in 1978) or who play in yards heavily
contaminated with lead paint dust or emissions from
leaded gasoline (phased out in the early 1990s). But
with 25% of U.S. homes still containing deteriorating
lead paint, according to the National Safety Council,
the risk by no means stops at the poverty line.

Scientists have long known that lead exposure lowers
intelligence and that a lower IQ is linked with
behavioral problems.

But a new study lead by Chen, published this month in
Pediatrics, is among recent studies that also suggest:

•Lead makes a direct contribution to behavior problems
such as aggression, inattention and impulsivity in
school-age children. (Chen's study showed the effect
in 7-year-olds.)

•Children of any age with elevated blood lead levels —
not just those with high levels as toddlers and
preschoolers — suffer the consequences.

"Every guideline has always emphasized finding
children exposed to lead in the first six years of
life," says Michael Shannon, a Harvard pediatrician
who chaired a group that wrote a 2005 policy on lead
for the American Academy of Pediatrics. The focus on
young children arose because blood lead levels
typically peak in toddlers — when kids are ingesting
lead dust by putting their mouths on their hands, toys
and other household items — and because the resulting
brain damage is permanent.

But, he says, the latest studies suggest "we also
should be looking to see what the lead levels are of
kids who are 8 or 10 or 12 or 16" and making sure
older kids are not exposed to lead, either.

Chen agrees: "There is no age at which we can stop
lead prevention."

The best solution is to replace or clean up dangerous
homes and remove other lead hazards, experts agree.

Despite the continuing concern, the pediatrics academy
and the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention stopped recommending screening every U.S.
child for high lead levels a decade ago. The numbers
affected had dropped so dramatically that universal
testing was no longer considered cost effective.
Instead, the groups now endorse targeted screening of
children receiving Medicaid and other groups deemed
high-risk by states and cities.

But Shannon says every parent should ask their child's
pediatrician about lead screening.

"A lead test is not difficult" and can be done at the
same time as other routine blood work, he says. "So
ask the pediatrician if they are going to test for
lead and if not, why not. The pediatrician may say
that in your community there are no cases of lead
poisoning. But they need to provide a clear
rationale."